19 July 2021
Who does this notice affect?
Customs brokers and importers who import uncooked pig meat.
Biosecurity industry participants holding an approved arrangement for receipt, storage, and processing of imported pig meat
What has changed?
Effective 2 August 2021, all uncooked imported pig meat permit conditions via BICON have been updated.
The process for issuing and receiving movement directions for imported uncooked frozen pig meat will be streamlined to create efficiencies for industry and the department whilst continuing to effectively manage biosecurity and imported food risk.
A Biosecurity Direction will be issued for a 12-month period from date of assessment allowing for the movement to occur between specified AA sites. The entity details of the specified AA site locations are required at the time of initial lodgement of the entry by the broker.
Record of individual carton movements to and from those specified AA site locations must continue to be kept by the biosecurity industry participant operating each site for audit purposes.
Biosecurity industry participants operating AA class 3.2 will be required to notify the department when all imported pig meat cartons listed in the movement direction have been processed as per import permit conditions. A new ‘pig meat completion notification form’ can be found under Conditions for operating approved arrangements - Department of Agriculture and must be completed and emailed to pigmeat@awe.gov.au
Please continue to lodge all initial assessment of uncooked imported pig meat via COLS.
Brokers will need to advise at time of lodgement in COLS of all approved arrangement (AA) site locations that imported pig meat will be stored and processed (i.e. AA sites holding Class 2.8; Class 2.5.2 and Class 3.2) to ensure that the entry is processed with minimal delay
All post border uncooked imported pig meat related emails need to be sent to the department via pigmeat@aff.gov.au inbox only. This inbox will be monitored for all post border uncooked imported pig meat enquiries including reporting of discrepancies. A new Discrepancy reporting form has been uploaded to the department’s website under Conditions for operating approved arrangements - Department of Agriculture and, when completed, must be emailed to pigmeat@awe.gov.au
Please ensure that when sending an email to pigmeat@awe.gov.au, the following format must be used in the email subject heading;
email subject line format: AA Number – Entry Number – “Request Type”
e.g. V9123 – A1234567 – Pig Meat Discrepancies:
“Request Type” is any of the following words highlighted in bold:
Pig Meat Movements
Pig Meat Discrepancies
Biosecurity industry participants operating AA class 2.8, 2.5.2 and 3.2 will be directly contacted regarding the impact of this IAN and to review all current open entries prior to 2 August to determine the balance of cartons unprocessed for each consignment at each location. This will assist the pig meat team to issue an updated movement direction for the remaining balance of cartons. The balance of 12 months will also be applied from date of initial assessment of the entry.
Note: The department will also contact relevant biosecurity industry participants again to incorporate these changes into approved arrangement documents.
Please email pigmeat@awe.gov.au if you have any questions as to the requirements of this IAN.
Please continue to direct all uncooked pig meat phone enquiries to the department on
1800 900 090.
Please be aware that import permits issued prior to the 2 August 2021 will not automatically be updated and this update will occur when importers apply for new permits or variations to existing permit.
Further information
Biosecurity import conditions are available on the department’s Biosecurity Import Conditions database (BICON).
For further information regarding this notice or for general advice on the importation of uncooked pig meat, please contact the department on 1800 900 090